Various nail enamel compositions are known in the art. Nail enamel compositions typically contain, in an organic solvent or mixture of solvents, film-forming ingredients, plasticizing ingredients, and colorants. Generally, the composition also contains a thixotropic agent to thicken the composition in order to allow better spreading on the nail. The thixotropic agent also acts to suspend the colorant.
The classic thixotropic agent used in the prior art is a bentonite clay. Aromatic organic solvents in particular cause these clays to swell, thus providing a gel with good thixotropic properties, i.e., rendering the composition capable of passing from a gelled state to a liquid state simply by stirring and from liquid to gel after standing. A composition containing such a gel thus exhibits relatively good dispersion stability without sedimentation or separation over a long period. Further, such compositions do not require the vigorous shaking that other compositions often require after extended periods of storage.
The clay thixotropes, however, produce cloudy suspensions, rendering the composition opaque and often giving it a more or less yellowish color inside the bottle, unpleasant to the eye. Although this opacity is generally masked by the presence of colorants and/or pigments in the composition, the use of the clay thixotropes diminishes gloss in the final formulated nail enamel product. Thus the need remains for a thixotropic agent that will not affect the glossiness of the nail enamel and yet will have sufficient thixotropic properties such that the stability of the composition is not compromised.